Apple Admits Slowing Down Old iPhones
DENVER (CBS4)- Apple was hit with a class-action lawsuit Thursday after admitting that it intentionally makes older models of iPhones work slower. They say it's to save battery life on older models.
Denver Mac Repair owner Sean Patrick says they've had a number of people coming in asking about their batteries. He says they've known about this for years and agrees that Apple is doing this to save battery life.
"Apple says that a new iPhone has about 1,000 charge cycles in it before the battery is no longer usable. They're trying to extend the phone's usefulness," he told CBS4.
Apple says the issue came up when the iPhone 6 experienced sudden shut downs last year.
The problem was that older batteries crashed while trying to keep up with the phone's power demands, so the company issued a software update, which made them run slower. Still critics wonder if a $1,000 smart phone should have this sort of issue a year or two after someone buys it.
"It made total sense to us why Apple was doing it. We had our suspicions of course. But it was definitely about making the phone last throughout the day," said Patrick.
We also asked Patrick about the conspiracy that Apple is only doing this to get people to buy new phones.
"Some of these conspiracy theories might have some warrant to them but I don't think this is one of them."
He says the fix is simple, get your battery replaced.
"They can order a battery online and do it themselves or they can come into a shop like ours and get the battery upgraded."
Dominic Garcia anchors CBS4 News at 5 p.m. and reports for CBS4 News at 10 p.m. Connect with the Denver native on Twitter @cbs4dom & on Facebook.
